Once upon a time, In a pet store far far away lived a little goldfish named Jilly. Every morning when Jilly woke up she would swim to her little fishy mirror, grab a little bow and stick it on her head. This morning was a very special day for Jilly so she decided to wear her pretty blue bow. She wanted all the other fish to notice her. Today was Jilly's birthday.
Next Jilly set off it was time to eat her breakfast before heading to school. She swam to her little kitchen as happy as can be expecting to find her mom, dad, brothers and sisters waiting to wish her a happy birthday, but when she got there no one was home. All that was in the kitchen was a little plate with her normal morning food. Jilly was very hungry after her long nights sleep so she ate up the food thinking "maybe they had to run out and get me a fishy cake, they will all be home after school to wish me a happy birthday."
Next Jilly packed her books in her little fishy backpack and was off to school. As the day went on Jilly got more and more excited, she imagined walking in the door to find them all sitting around and screaming "Happy Birthday Jilly!" The rest of the day seemed to fly on by, and as soon as the bell rang announcing the end of the day Jilly burst through the school house doors and swam home as fast as she could.
She rushed in the door, but no one was waiting in the living room for her. She thought to herself. "maybe they are all in the kitchen with my very special cake." So once again she burst through the kitchen doors to find no one waiting for her there either.
At this point Jilly was getting very sad. How could everyone just forget she wondered? No one at school had remembered, her parents had all forgotten. Even her brothers and sisters had forgotten! Jilly started to get very sad. She swam up to her room and started to cry.
A little while later she heard the door open, but Jilly was so upset she didn't want to go down and talk to anyone. She was very angry that everyone could just forget! Time passed by and seconds turned into minutes and suddenly her bedroom door opened. In swam Mommy goldfish. She saw that Jilly was very upset and when she asked why Jilly would not tell her. Mommy goldfish swam to the edge of Jilly's bed and sat down. She hugged Jilly and told her everything would be ok, kissed her on her fishy forehead and told her to meet for dinner in 5 minutes. Jilly got off her bed, fixed her little bow and went downstairs sulking the whole way.
When the sad little Jilly went through the kitchen doors she was surprised to see that all her friends and family sitting in there, and she saw a huge cake in the middle of the table with her name right in the middle. All at once everyone screamed "Happy Birthday Jilly!" Jilly's eyes lit up, and a huge smile came across her face. No one had forgotten! They were all just waiting to surprise her! Jilly swam to the table and as everyone sang happy birthday to her, she blew out her candles and made a wish to never doubt her family again.
(c) 2001
